The Box of Things Forgotten
by omnom33
Summary: Basically takes place around the time right before James becomes James once more: Tessa is going through some things that remind her of her life in London. Fluffy and cute, hope you enjoy


**Alright! Finally, i get some more stuff on here (and end the dry spell of story updates) This is essentially what i was able to submit as a book report on the infernal devices series. It takes place in 2007 or so, before James actually becomes James once more. It does go a bit off, but i hope you guys enjoy!**

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><p>Brightly coloured leaves were scattered along the ground as Tessa strolled along the dirt path. She was heading home to her brownstone in Brooklyn after her much needed get away in Central Park. Earlier, she had a great time as she met up with an old friend, but Tessa felt the need to lie in her bed and simply contemplate the mysteries of life while tangled in her sheets. Hailing a taxi over, Tessa hopped in, recited her address and turned up the volume of her music as she watched the city fly by as she was taken home.<p>

Inserting the key into the hole, Tessa heard the click of the tumblers and pushed open her door. Her coat landing with a thud on the near by couch as Tessa grabbed an apple from the kitchen and strolled into her bedroom.

Groaning loudly while she stretched slightly, Tessa threw her keys onto her bedside table. They hit the edge and bounced off and into the darkness underneath the bed. Huffing with indignation, Tessa brushed her hair behind her ear and got down onto her knees. Her slender hand crawled along the hardwood floor until her fingers made contact with something cool and dusty. Tessa pulled it out, keys now forgotten, and brushed the top. She gasped as she realized what she retrieved.

A small cherry wood box with a simple gold clasp rested on her lap. With shaking hands, Tessa undid the clasp and lifted open the lid. The inside revealed tokens from her past, all of the items in the same place as she had left them when she had last opened the box, 18 years ago. Reaching in cautiously, she brushed her hand over a frayed photograph and pulled it out.

A black and white image stared back at her, the date on the back indicating it was from the year 1879. A large church stood in the background of the picture while a group of people stood together in front of the doors. She found herself immediately in the picture, two boys her age on either side of her. To her left, a Chinese boy with fair hair stood smiling for the camera, an air of maturity visible from his pose. James Carstairs had both his hands resting atop the jade dragon topped staff as he looked at the camera. To her right was a blurry figure she would have known in any picture to be William Herondale. His dark hair was a large hazy mass, covering what she knew to be the bluest eyes she had ever seen. Beside James was Charlotte, an anxious smile on her face. Her eyes were squinted as if she were looking into the Sun, but Tessa remembered the occasions when those eyes looked at her with nothing less than a mother's love and pride. The last person in the picture was on the other side of Charlotte. Blond curls blurry from being blown in the wind, Jessamine stood with a scowl on her face.

Tessa looked at the family that had taken her in at the Institute, the people who had stood by her and helped her when she had no one else. She remembered how Henry, who was taking the picture, was fluttering about anxiously as he tried to get everyone to stand still for the shot and ended up knocking over the camera like he had several times in the minutes that had come before. He was like a father figure to her, helping her along and making her laugh at his antics. Jessie, despite her disregard for the life of Shadowhunting, was also missed by Tessa. Tessa looked back at the figures of the boys who stood beside her. _Will and Jem._

Having studied the faces of her old friends for several moments, Tessa's hands replaced the photo with another token from the same year: a bound collection of letters she had written to her brother while she was held captive by the Dark Sisters. Shivering at the memories the Dark Sisters, Tessa found herself grateful for having made herself keep the letters. She had almost burned them on one occasion, but decided she would save them for one sole reason: the letters were the last remainders she had of her brother, the image she had of him as they grew up together. Before she knew about his affiliation with Mortmain, the man who made it possible for Tessa to be the special, one-of-a-kind warlock she was. The man who attempted to gain control over her powers through a forced marriage after having kidnapped her. These letters reminded Tessa of the Nate who pushed her higher, always higher, on the swing set at the nearby park. The Nate who cracked jokes and smiled. The Nate who loved his sister the same way she loved him.

Carefully putting the letters aside, Tessa reached back into the wooden box and pulled out the copy of _A Tale of Two Cities_ which lay resting on top of another box made of metal. Heart clenching at the sight of the cover, she gingerly opened the cover and gazed at the poem scrawled messily inside. _Tess, Tess, Tessa_. A poem from William. Written about his love for her, written in a time where he believed he was worse than damned. A tear slipped out of her eye as she read the words written by her late husband, her throat aching from a scratchy sensation which began to build as she immersed herself in his work. The second she finished, she slammed the cover shut and held it to her chest, her head tipped back. _With a sudden mastery you kindled me, heaps of ashes I am, into fire. _She vividly recalled the way she could feel the heat of his hands through both pairs of gloves as he held her finger between his as she quoted the book, the carriage bouncing along the cobble street as they were driven to a vampire laden dinner party where they were both sure they could be slain. With the same care she had when she taken when she took it out, she laid the book on her bedside table and delved back into the wooden box, now eager to remember more and feel more.

The soft down of a feather brushed against her fingertips as they slipped back into the box. Grabbing a hold of the object, she pulled out a dainty gold mask. Holding it, she felt like she was back at the masquerade, the frigid air hitting her face as she stood on the balcony. The sound of the pins from her hair being discarded into the stone floor as Will exposed a side of himself Tessa would never forget. The heat in the cold night as Tessa desperately tried to understand the boy before her. The sparkling lemonade, the demon, the warlock.

Tessa replayed every sensation of the party in her head, the mask clutched in her hands.

The pile of objects from her past life grew as she went through the box from under the bed. Looking inside, her eyes fell on the largest object within the wooden box. It was a silver box with a picture of a barefooted woman, white robes clad over her slim figure as she poured water out of a vase and into a stream. The first time she saw it, Jem had been coughing up blood onto the white bed sheets, his face paler than his silver hair. It used to contain opium, a substance which Jem despised, for it was the only substance able to slow down the demon poison in his blood. Opening the box, she saw the red velvet lining which once held the sweet, powdery drug, but now held only four small items of value greater than Tessa could ever imagine. As she was about to pick up the bracelet she spotted, Tessa sat up straight, suddenly remembering something before reaching once more beneath her bed.

Feeling blindly in the dark space under her bed, Tessa managed to grasp another box and pulled it out. Once in the light, she could the see the outline of the instrument in the shape of the case as she undid the clasps which held the lid down. Lifting it up, she reached in and delicately held the violin between her hands. Her fingers ran up and down the strings as a voice echoed through her head. "_Will? Will, is that you?_" The first words she ever heard Jem speak. He had been playing the very same violin when she had entered his room that night, curious to the origin of the sweet sounding noise from across the hall. It was also the same violin Jem played for Will in his last moments, as he lay in his bed unable to move. The same violin he had brought over from China after he was orphaned. The same violin he had serenaded Tessa with all those years ago. Tessa gently placed the instrument back in its case. She returned the violin to where it was before and went back to exploring the contents of the silver box.

Picking up the bracelet once more, she examined the gift Will had given her for their 30th wedding anniversary. It had been a cold night on their anniversary that year. Will had insisted on having a private dinner in his old room, and so they had; it ended up much more magical than Tessa could have ever dreamt of it being. After blowing out the candle which lay on the table Will had dragged into the room, she turned around to see her husband, awash with moonlight as he held out a small box for her. The box contained a delicate chain with a diamond charm. She had cried in his arms after he had put it on her wrist, bewildered by her response. He didn't realize that she was crying with happiness; Will was the only person who made her feel special with the things he went through for her. She secured the bracelet on her wrist like he had that night, and went back to looking through the box.

A flash of green caught her eye as she moved aside a small pair of boots from within the silver box. Picking it up, she saw it was a circular whitish-green jade pendant. It had Chinese characters engraved on the smooth surface, the meaning of which she still remembered. _When two people are at one in their inmost heats, they shatter even the strength of iron or bronze._ Tessa remembered how Jem has been flushed in his cheeks as he asked for her hand, giving her his mother's wedding present as he proposed to her. She had known nothing of Will's feelings for her then. Jem and Tessa had been growing much closer in the weeks preceding the proposal, despite all the havoc that was being cause all around them and those at the institute. Slipping it around her neck, she shifted her hair so that she could close the clasp. Letting it go, it fell into place against her collarbone; it felt as if a part of her had been returned after being lost for years, finally finding its home once more.

Reaching back for the little boots she had moved aside earlier, she stifled back a sob. These were the first pair of shoes her first-born son had ever worn. James Herondale. Will and Tessa has agreed without needing to speak that they would name their child after the man that was closer than a brother to Will, the man who was always there for the two new parents. Tessa's tears ran fast as she recalled the small coos and giggles from her son as she chased him around the Institute halls, the shoes squeaking whenever he ran over wooden surfaces. Smiling amid the sorrow she felt, she placed her hands slightly inside the shoes, pretending they were James's tiny feet, making them patter across the air in front of her. Tessa spent what felt like forever playing with the little booties, remembering the milestones in her son's life when he was a toddler. Placing the miniature shoes down beside the now large pile on her bed, she reached in one last time to draw out the oldest of all her possessions.

Her mother's old clockwork angel lay in her palm. Tessa remembered that her mother had been wearing it when she died, remembered the numerous times it protected herself from death as it came for her time after time. It was no bigger than her pinky finger, its bronze frame now empty of the Angel it had harboured when Tessa was young. Ever since the Angel's presence left it, it stopped ticking, but it used to have a steady ticking which was able to calm Tessa in nearly every situation she encountered. It had been with her when she played with her brother when they were young and innocent. It had been with her on her journey over to England from New York. It was with her when she was tortured and held captive by the Dark Sisters. It was with her when both Jem and Will had proposed, when she had her heart broken by their deaths. It was with her when she went to the masquerade party and when she learned about Jem's illness. Tessa had her angel with her when she had her baby boy and when she got her anniversary present. Tessa had her angel wherever she went. It distraught her that she hadn't worn it for years. It was a part of her as much as Will and James and Jem were. As much a part of her as the Institute in London was her home.

Tentatively, Tessa undid the clasp and slid the chain around her neck, clicking it into place and letting it fall. It found its home once more in the hollow of her throat, resting below the jade pendant, and for the first time in years, Tessa remembered who she was.

For the first time in years, Tessa felt whole once more.

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><p><strong>Review in the box often forgotten below ;) <strong>


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